Merry Christmas to ALL!

Today is my last day of work for 8 days. I’m so excited. I’m ready for a LONG vacation away from here and ready to spend some time with my family. I’m really just nervous that the roads will be crappy driving home, so I better leave early and store some food bars or something in my car, ha ha. Most of all I just love this time of year so I can reflect on my Savior, and everything he’s done for me. I’m so blessed, I have an AMAZING eternal family, great supportive friends, and a job that affords me comforts of life and then some. May we all realize how truly blessed we are to live in such a great country where we can celebrate Christmas (year round if we wanted too). Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

12 Days of Christmas

So my friend Jenn and I decided we would remember the 12 Days of Christmas this year – so this is what I’ve done so far:

1st Day of Christmas a Partridge in a Pear Tree – I consumed a delicious pear and Jenn sent me a Wikipedia description of a Partridge

2nd Day of Christmas, 2 Turtle Doves – I ate a Dove Chocolate (I should have allowed myself 2 of them), and Jenn sent me a really funny video

3rd Day of Christmas, 3 French Hens – I said Bonjour to Jenn and then had some chicken for lunch, and Jenn sent me a Youtube video of hens speaking French

Tomorrow is 4 Calling Birds – maybe I’ll call someone? I don’t know, but this is a fun game anyway! I’ll keep you posted.

To see the videos just visit my Facebook page, they are pretty funny!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Oh how I love Christmas. It’s just so fun! I love giving gifts mostly, ok well I love shopping for them. I really do think I’m a shopaholic. I could go shopping everyday and be content with life. Granted I might not buy something every time, but I still love it. I just love being in the stores, it’s weird, but I just enjoy looking at new things. I also love watching others fret over what they should buy. Or other shopping personalities. You have those who are impulse buyers, no second thoughts, they won’t even try it on. If they see it they want it. You have those middle of the roaders who try it on and think about it and then purchase (mostly me – notice I said MOSTLY). Then you have the fretters. They try it on more than once, carry it around with them, then look at it again, carry it around some more, and then they put it down pick it back up. FOR THE LOVE, just buy it. HA HA! Anyway, a random tangent but my observations. I’ve always been skeptical of online shopping too. It doesn’t fulfill that instant gratification that comes with purchasing something in the store. I will say though, I’ve done A LOT of online shopping this year and I just LOVE when that package comes in the mail. It’s almost like another Christmas (even though it isn’t a surprise and the gifts are not for you). Merry Shopping!!

Photos...

Here are some great photos I've been meaning to post:

Cutting the Turkey... yummm!

Hyrum and puppy Eddie

Happy Birthday Jenn!!

Ugly Sweaters... and Awkward Photos!

My dearest Jenn, whom I LOVE!

Sibling love...

David Archuleta = AMAZING!!

BUSY!

Tis the season to be busy.  I cannot describe to you how busy work has been lately.  I get here look up at the clock and see it's lunch time, then look up again and it's time to go home.  It's just insane.  I love being busy though, and I am continually learning new things along the way.  I have some GREAT photos of Jenn's party, Thanksgiving, and other random things.  I'll get to that hopefully soon.  Thanksgiving was amazing as usual and I did the whole Black Friday thing with my mom.  I love it so much.  I scored me a 40" Plasma for only $400... YES!  So that's my Christmas gift to myself.  I hope everyone has a chance to stop and enjoy this season, I'll totally going to try.  OH and PS - David Archuelta concert is tonight... HOORAY!

My Dearest Friend Sarah!

Today is like my Friday. I’m so excited to go home for the Thanksgiving holiday! I haven’t been home since Labor Day and I do miss it so. Mostly here I want to talk about my dearest friend and roommate Sarah L. Larsen. The past couple of days she’s sacrificed a lot to help me out and that has meant so much to me. So my brother and dad took my car home for the break, so I was left with my brother’s old crappy truck (that sucks in snow). And what do you know, but that it snowed on Sunday, ALL DAY! Anyway, Sarah let me borrow her car to get to work and she drove that truck. That alone was gracious, and then she left work early to start my ham I had to cook for FHE. Seriously, she’s the best. Thank you my dear Sarah, blessings in heaven for you!!

Friday!

Things that must go Friday:

Colds - I hate the running nose and the headache.  I wonder what the cavemen did to combat said disease? Actually they probably died.  :(

Car Maintainence - Seriously, I know it has to be done, but I hate it.  Waste of money, just like buying gas, a waste of money, or grocery's.  BLECK!

People who can't admit they they are wrong - It's ok, it happens to the best of us.  But accept the fact that sometimes you are. 

It's Friday yo!  Almost Thanksgiving Break. 

Lovely!

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything.  I'm such a loser I know!  Work has been really busy and I love that.  I'm working on a really cool awards packet, that turned out just great.  I hope we win!  (I will shank someone if we don't!)

This weekend my high school football team will be playing in the state title game in Pocatello, ID.  I love football and even though I've been graduated since well you know 2002, I still love going and supporting my Panthers, my sisters also cheerlead so I get to see them too!  I'm excited to see my parents, and soon all of my family will be together for Thanksgiving.  HOORAY!

Oh and a little something I would like to call NEW MOON comes out soon, oh Taylor Lautner... Even though I'm Team Edward.

Oh and I met a girl yesterday who touched and talked to Zac Efron, so bascially I've touched Zac Efron.  HA HA!!

Movie Weekend!

This weekend I saw two very different movies:
The 1st -

It was really great, vintage looking actually. I thought a lot about my friend Monica because she would love the music and look of it. There’s even a French song in it. It’s not your typical love story, but it’s good. There are two places in the movie where I seriously cried I was laughing so hard, and other parts where I was crying because it was sad. It’s very good.

The 2nd –

It’s based on a true story. During the majority of it I just kept thinking how blessed I am to live in the time period I do now. They might have had really cool dresses, parties, and fantastic houses, but women had no rights. I highly recommend it, especially if you are in to historical movies, this one is for you.

Random

I don’t know why I’m such a Christmas freak. Yes, I’m one of “those” people who start Christmas November 1st. I’ve started my annual Christmas list in which I have an Excel Spreadsheet (color coded) for my gift giving. Hello, you can’t start Christmas shopping a week before Christmas, everything will be gone by then. So I start early, know what I want to get and then look for the SALES!! This year though will be a little different, I will be using the Christmas sales, but for my own good, well a discount on a TV mostly! They are always so cheap during Black Friday. So if you find any deals send them my way, I will be looking for some other deals as the season gets closer.

On a different note, a great friend from Florida has a blog (bless you Emily), and she has a “Things that must go Thursday”. I believe I will do one too, except mine will be Friday. So here we go:

Casual Fridays – Ok so I like it, but also loathe it. Even though it is causal that doesn’t mean wear your pajamas to work. Pull it together people.

Daylight Savings – I hate driving to work in the dark and going home in the dark, WHY?

Personality Stealers- HA, this sounds funny but seriously people can’t just be themselves, they have to be somebody else. The best advice I ever got? Be who you are and love it.

Oh I didn't mean for this post to sound negative, oh well.  Here's to the weekend! :)

Halloweeeenie!!

Oh wow, this weekend was crazy. I am officially Halloween’d out. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, I celebrated it on Monday, Friday, and Saturday, needless to say I’m exhausted. Anyway, it was so fun. I dressed up for work, that was so much fun! I even won the contest! That night, Alex, Hyrum, Sarah, me, Molly, and my sister Mariah went to a dance in Idaho Falls. It was so much fun, and I saw some GREAT costumes. There was a guy who was a Transformer, just like the YouTube video, he had this cardboard car and could transform it. WOW! It was so much fun. We partied all night, my feet were killing me because I had fishnet stockings on! Saturday night we went to Hyrum and Alex’s for another dance party / Monster Mash. That was fun and we had dance battles too! It’s just so fun to be creative and get dressed up, I thoroughly enjoyed my costume – especially dancing in it!  Anyway, it’s now officially the Holiday Season, HOORAY!!

The Weekend Plans!

love Halloween! It’s just a fun holiday, and it kicks off the Holiday season in my opinion. I do start listening to Christmas music on November 1st after all. Anyway, I’m hoping to win the company costume contest, and take home a coveted prize. I’m also making an Apple/Bacon/Pumpkin soup, I hope it turns out! I’ll be sure to attach many wonderful pictures.

Also my beautiful, and I mean beautiful, sister Mariah will be up here this weekend to visit BYU-I. She’s planning on attending there next year, and since our football team has a bye this week (she is after all a cheerleader) this weekend will be perfect. I can’t wait, she’s seriously one of the funniest people ever (and she doesn’t even know it!).

My Big Girl Bed!

It finally arrived, my bedroom set!  My big girl bed now doesn't have to reside on the floor, and I almost have enough drawers to fit my clothes (notice I said ALMOST)! I'm loving it so much, I even had a sleepover to break it in.

Now I have the undaunting task of finding a new duvet that looks good, and is reasonably priced. Oh Pottery Barn why do you have to be so expensive?

Good Times!

This weekend Sarah was also gone so I played with Hyrum, Alex, and Jenn. We went to see the new movie Stepfather (it was alright), ate $40 pizza (thank you Alex for wanting a stuffed crust extra cheese pizza), and then made a Halloween movie. It was a good time, those three are dear friends (and one is even my brother), and I love them! Jenn and I spent most of Saturday together and that was fun too, it was like good ol times. I’m thankful that I live in Rexburg and can spend a lot more time with these dear friends. Even though I lived in Idaho Falls last year, I didn’t get to see them as much as I do now and I love it.

Oh Adulthood!

I made another step to becoming an adult this weekend. I bought my very own bedroom set. It was a great deal, I got a Queen bed, dresser and mirror, and night stand. All for around $1000. I thought it was a pretty good deal. I just hope that it’s going to fit in my bedroom with all the other crap that I have in there. It should though. It’s way cute, and I will most definitely be taking some pictures of it to post here as soon as it gets delivered (which is Tomorrow, HOORAY!) I’m still on the hunt for a bigger and better TV as well, but I just know there will be some good deals during Christmas so I decided to wait. I’m sure my bed will be cheaper for Christmas too, but hello, I’ve got to buy Christmas presents as well during that time, so better space my purchases out I think. Oh Christmas how I love you so, I cannot wait until you are here!

Haunted Maze!

I can’t believe that it’s already mid-October. Here in the winter wonderland known as Eastern Idaho we seemed to have skipped Fall and headed straight into Winter. It’s already snowed twice! EEK! I usually embrace Fall like nobody’s business but this year I didn’t want my summer to end. It was my first complete summer here in Rexburg and it wasn’t unbearably hot, like Parma is. That’s maybe why. Anyway, it’s almost Halloween and for once in my life I have secured my costume before the night of Halloween! It’s super cute, I cannot wait!


Last weekend we all went to this haunted straw maze. It wasn’t that haunted, it was more the anticipation of it all. I talked my dear roommate Sarah into coming with us (and she’s the biggest scaredy cat of them all)! It was really fun, and actually scary especially because Sarah and I got stuck in the back and this creepy guy was following us. I enjoyed spending time with Monica and Julene too because they got just as scared as I did!!  It's actually quite comical! They also had a chain saw, and I HATE chain saws (it stems back to a haunted house I went to my freshmen year of high school for my friend Jessica Jemmett’s birthday. I don’t think I will ever recover from that terrifying haunted warehouse!!). It doesn’t help you don’t know where you are going so that also scares you. I started to get a little claustrophobic (which is also funny because I was outside). It was fun though, and I’ve had my scare for Halloween!

Birthday Week 2009

Ok I’ve been 25 for one week, I feel so different (ha ha!). Mostly because I realized this past week how much I really am loved. First lets start with my party and then I’ll explain about my weekend:

GLAM PARTY ‘09

I think I’ve mentioned here before that I painted a fence along with Sarah, Melissa, Clint, and Tenille to have this party extravaganza. It was worth every hour on those Saturdays I might add too! I only worked half of a day on my birthday and then headed over to Austin Kade for Nellie to do my hair. She dyed it and did an up do. Oh it was so fantastic, I love her, and I’m so happy with the way my hair turned out! Then I met Melissa at Snake River Landing where we set up our flowers and dinner etc… Off to Rexburg. Where I met up with Sarah of course and she gave me the movie Guys and Dolls and a Maurices gift card (lovely). We finished getting ready and then the Hummer stretch limo was there to pick us up!! I was so excited! We then met everyone at Jenn’s apartment, and everyone looked AMAZING! Dressed to the nine’s and everything, it was great!! We toasted in the limo and then made our way to Idaho Falls, there we ate Fongs Chinese food, had a fashion show, a Beyonce dance contest and of course took pictures! It was a great time! I’ll never forget it, probably the best birthday ever! Oh and I almost forgot, my friends all pitched in and got me a new DIGITAL CAMERA!! I love them! When we got back to Rexburg we went up to Jenn’s house and I had Cocoa Bean cupcakes for my cake, and opened more presents, I’m seriously so blessed!!

Monica and I - We celebrated my birthday together for the first time EVER!

















 



















Sarah, Me, Melissa!

MAKE IT OFFICIAL

So since I turned 25 I also decided to make a big step and go through the temple. On Thursday night Hyrum and I headed down to Utah to meet the rest of our family in Bountiful, Utah. The next morning at 7 in the a.m. my mom and I went to the Bountiful Temple and then the rest of my family met us for the 8:30 session. What an experience, one that I will never forget, so I’m now an official Mormon, ha ha!! My cousin also got married that same day and that was really cool to see too! Then we headed to Provo because we all had tickets to the BYU Football game vs. Utah State. It was a good time, and my dad and brothers are huge BYU fans so they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Austin and Kenzie, it was a great weekend indeed!

I’m just so blessed to have a great family, and great friends. Thanks to everyone who made it one of the best times EVER!

Quarter of Century!

Today is my 25th Birthday, holy crap!! I'm old!!  More pictures to come of my Birthday Glam Party 2009!!

Random Fun!

Ok so only 7 more days until I’m quarter of a century… AHHH! I can’t wait until my birthday though. I’ve rented a Hummer limo and it’s going to be fan-freakin-tastic. Of course we are rolling in high class so I’ve got a party dress and everything for the occasion. Anyway we’ve been painting a fence for one of my co-workers to help pay for my upcoming birthday party, and can I just say that you can find fun in whatever you are doing! I’m got some amazing friends too, as they have spent THREE I repeat THREE Saturday’s helping me finish this huge project. We’ve had a great time doing it though, even if we get covered in stain. Thanks guys!

Today I have been playing the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon with Melissa. I dare anyone to beat her, she’s pretty freaking good.

Austin and Kenzie are having a boy. YES! Now I can start buying clothes, jesh, it’s been rough having to be patient, and I’ve still got 4 ½ months to go.

Fall TV Lineup!

It seems as though my summer is winding down. BOO! I’ve had an incredible summer, and most definitely memorable. Sometimes I think I didn’t do a whole lot but then I review my pictures and I most definitely did. I really love summer, the heat, the suntan, swimming, oh just everything. The only thing I really have to look forward to is my 25th birthday and the changing of the leaves. I’m not ready for the frost on my windows in the morning or having to wear a coat wherever I go. I am excited though that Hyrum and Jenn have both moved up here because it’s time for school to start. I think it’s going to be great having them only 5 minutes away (as opposed to 30 minutes).

I’m also excited for the fall TV lineup, which includes the return of So You Think You Can Dance?, Gossip Girl, ANTM, The Office, and 30 Rock. I’m also excited for these new shows - Glee, Vampire Diaries, and Community. What shows do you watch? I’m a TV junkie that’s for sure, thank goodness I have DVR so that I can record my TV shows and still have a social life! Seriously what did I do before that?

DAVID COOK!!!

So yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to see David Cook in concert! It was fantastic! Thanks to Clint’s sister who had been standing in line since 3 in the afternoon we got amazing seats. 5 rows from the front, and it was so close! I could see his face CLEARLY! Later in the concert when he came into the audience I was only 2 feet from him and freaking out. Ok one he is SO good looking, and two that man can sing! He is a delight to behold. It was deafening in the auditorium, and Mr. Cook himself even said that this concert was one of the best crowds he has seen in awhile! (Oh don’t worry that I Twitter stalked him to see what he was doing in the area, of course, Yellowstone, and later said that the Idaho Falls concert was incredible – uh that’s right son!) If you have the chance to see him, DO IT, he has an amazing voice and gives a great rock concert. He’s also really funny and seems humble. David Cook, Come Back To Me! Anyway, here are some delightful pictures:

Oh and I even made it on the news, too bad I didn’t know I was on the news, ha ha!! Here is the link


Here is David rocking out, his lead guitarist is his bff before Idol. He was also amazing!


He played his guitar for most of the concert!


Singing in his upper register which I LOVE!


The finale after the Encore, it was amazing, he was like this is the best crowd EVER!

Sing to me David!

Oh you know...

I can’t believe that my summer is coming to an end. Seriously where did July go? I really can’t remember it. It’s a good thing I have a blog to help me remember what I did. My summer isn’t quite over yet. In fact my summer doesn’t end until my birthday (that’s how I always see it anyway) so I’ve still got a month.

A couple things have been on my mind as of late:

1. Why does it seem like the world is spinning out of control? Between the government and economy I feel like I’m only hanging on by my fingertips.
2. Everyone wants something for free. And when they are given that something they complain or are disrespectful. That’s just rude!
3. I work hard for my job, I don’t think I’m lazy, so when others around me think that I’m slacking off that really bothers me. I work hard, I play hard. That’s my motto and I stick by it. I’m not content on just staying the same, there has got to be progress in my work / life, “Living the life you want is always an uphill battle”.
4. I HATE it when people try to tell me about history and then when I kindly explain that it actually happened another way they think I’m wrong. I didn’t spend thousands of dollars on an education in history and not learn anything, HELLO, I know what the Gettysburg Address is, PUHLEASE!
5. Brad Pitt – I’m SO over you…
6. I am generally a happy person. But I do have bad days, and sometimes I’m in a bad mood and don’t have an excuse why. So leave me alone and let me live in my misery alone.
7. Zac Efron – I love you, and I don’t care if other people think I’m weird.

Models!

So I talked my amazing friend Monica into doing some photos for me and these are the results. She’s FANTASTIC! I would highly recommend her, she’s got pure talent and a personality that will knock your socks off. I can’t wait until she becomes famous and I will say, I know her. HA HA! Anyway, here is some of her work. You can also check out her blog here.

Are you American?

I swear that I do other things within the week, not just the weekends. I just seem only to blog about my happenings in the weekends. This weekend though seemed to be pretty mellow. Friday I met up with Sarah and Clint and we went shopping (of course that’s what we do best) and then to eat at Café Rio. That place is heavenly. Sarah went home for the weekend so Clint and I decided to go to a movie, choice being GI Joe. Oh Channing Tatum so was so delish! I could stare at him ALL day. The movie was good too! We were supposed to go boating on Saturday but thanks to Eastern Idaho weather, it was a warm 68 degrees. So we postponed that trip until the 18th! I decided that I better do some laundry and clean my house up a little. Little unknown fact about me, I love, I mean love, the show COPS! I tivo it, that’s how much I love it. Everyone makes fun but I don’t care, I just love it. So I watched that and cleaned up. Melissa called me with some unfortunate news so I decided I would go back down to I.F. to see her. Clint and Tenille decided to come along so we went to the mall (again more shopping, and again more fabulousness!), we also went to Johnny Carino’s (yum!). Then off to Melissa’s where we met Alex and Bridgette. A delightful little gathering and just chatted it up. Sunday I made a pot roast and Clint, Tenille, Nellie, Alex, and Bridgette all came over. It was so good! My husband will be very lucky to have me as a cook! We then started talking about movies, you cannot be an American unless you’ve seen the following flicks:

Sound of Music
Mary Poppins
Singing in the Rain
My Fair Lady
Gone with the Wind (even though I dislike this film, you’ve still gotta sit through all billion hours of it)
Casablanca (another classic, but I find it boring)
Parent Trap (the original)
Any John Wayne film
Any of the classic Disney’s (such as Little Mermaid, Lion King, etc…)

So we watched Parent Trap as that is on the list and only 3 of us had seen it! Good times! Did I miss any movies? Please feel free to add!

A Weekend with Hyrum!

Hyrum came up this weekend and what a delight that was. He’s a blessed soul. Friday we (being Sarah, Me, Hyrum) went to I.F. where Hyrum attended a reception and Sarah and I went to K-Mart. I cannot tell you the last time I was in that store, but we found some GREAT clothes that were dirt cheap. I mean I spent $35 and got 4 articles of clothing, that’s a STEAL! After we picked Hyrum back up we went to Target so Hyrum could purchase some clothes and then off to Alex’s. We decided to crash a party he was having, it was a great time!

Saturday we woke up and chilled that morning. Around 2 we headed out to the sand dunes for a slip-n-slide adventure. It was at Egan Lakes, and we had to take a four-wheeler to get there! The slide was so much fun, and it had a great jump at the end of it.

After that we went to the International Folk Dance Festival Opening Ceremonies at the BYUI Stadium. It was a great time, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Hyrum of course was in love with the Mexicans and Melissa was obsessed with the Russians (hard to say why!) Anyway, we laughed a lot and had tons of fun. Katie also came up so afterwards we partied it up at our house, and then off to bed. We’ve had to switch wards and so now church starts at 8:30 in the A.M.! Compared to what we had before which was 1:30 P.M.! It was a little rough but I think that it’s going to be ok, because now I’ll get my Sunday nap!

Hyrum and his Mexicans!

Team Dunbar for the Win!

Things seem to have come to a normal pace. A member of my crew (aka Team Dunbar) decided it was time he returned home (to Maryland), so this weekend was spent spending time with him and others of the Team. Saturday we spent all day at Rigby Lake, which I love so much, and then we back to Idaho Falls where we had dinner and then rented the movie Bride Wars. It was cute! We then got some ice cream and chatted until the wee hours of the morning. A day full of emotion, happy times and sad ones too! John left on Wednesday morning, and Tuesday night we had a dinner and then chatted it up. We had a good laugh at Alex, he was in fine form that’s for sure and here’s some pictures of our last time together.

Dear Team Dunbar:
You’ll never know what you did for me, and for that I’ll always love us!

On a much happier note, Hyrum is coming up this weekend and we are going to go to the dunes and bridge jumping (hopefully!). I love my brother, he’s probably my most favorite person in the whole world. I can’t wait until he comes up here for school, then I can see him a lot more! Oh and Alex and him are going to be roommates, that should also be an adventure!

This is my brother Hyrum and I (who I love so much!)

And this is a random side note – I bought tickets for David Cook, September 2 in Idaho Falls. EXCITING!